More than 35 percent of American families with children skipped a meal in the last month due to financial reasons, according to the 11th Wave of the dunnhumby Consumer Trends Tracker released Sept. 29 during Groceryshop.
This is the highest rate of food insecurity since August 2023, when inflation for groceries hit 3.7 percent. Overall, 28.5 percent of consumers said they have reduced their meal size or skipped meals due to financial hardships.
The quarterly study, now in its third year, also found consumers perceive food-at-home inflation is 19.4 percent, 16.7 points higher than its actual percent in August of 2.7 percent, which is the fastest increase of grocery inflation in two years. Families with income under $25,000 perceive it to be higher at 24.8 percent.
Nearly 59 percent of consumers would struggle to pay an unexpected $400 expense; this rises to 70 percent among those aged 18-34, and 77 percent for those with incomes below $25,000. Again, these are the highest rates of financial insecurity in two years.
“Two years ago, during high inflation, we noted in Wave Four of the CTT, that many American families were struggling with food and financial pressures – particularly those with children and adults aged 18 to 44,” said Matt O’Grady, president of the Americas for dunnhumby.
“Unfortunately, we’re now seeing similar concerning trends emerge again, and families are having to adjust their shopping habits and spending priorities as a result.”
The CTT tracks where people shop and how much they spend, stated behaviors, stated importance of grocery needs, food security and inflation perceptions, and complements dunnhumby’s Retailer Preference Index which is released each year in January. Additionally, each CTT wave includes timely ad hoc modules on current topics. Wave 11 addressed AI (previously covered two years ago) and introduced cryptocurrencies questions.
Key findings from the study:
- For U.S. shoppers, factors such as product availability, low prices and attentive staff are increasingly relevant. Recent changes in consumer needs since Wave 10 include: 78 percent preferring an easy-to-shop website (up 2.1 percent), 67 percent seeking one-stop shopping (up 2 percent), and 71 percent prioritizing low base prices (up 1.8 percent).
- To increase their savings on purchasing food, consumers are changing some of their behaviors. Since the last wave, 62 percent of consumers are shopping at stores with low base prices (up 2.3 percent), 40 percent shop online before buying, and 40 percent shop around different stores to find the best value. There has also been a drop of 2.7 percent in consumers shopping for organic groceries (29 percent).
- In the past 12 months, dollar stores experienced a 4 percent increase in growth, the highest among all formats. Dollar stores now surpass discounters and club, positioning the channel in third place in penetration, the same as in August 2023.
Wave-specific findings on AI:
- Just 23 percent of Americans trust artificial intelligence (AI) – the lowest trust levels across the Americas. Although the U.S. is a leader in AI development, levels of AI trust among consumers are highest in Latin American countries: 33 percent in Mexico, 34 percent in Colombia, 40 percent in Chile and 46 percent in Brazil.
- The top five most appealing high touch AI use cases for U.S. consumers are personalized rewards and recommendations (51 percent), security (51 percent), forecasting, stock and waste management (45 percent), budgeting (45 percent) and health and diet goals (44 percent).
- The top five most appealing high-tech AI use cases for U.S. consumers are virtual shopping assistants (43 percent), smart shelves/shelf-stacking robots (39 percent), ordering (such as voice activated) (39 percent), self-driving shopping carts (38 percent), and customer service chatbots (37 percent).
“Although this wave underscores how many individuals are struggling now, it also shows that shoppers are increasingly receptive to retailers who can meet them where they are and provide them with AI tools for what they need such as personalized rewards, budgeting, savings and meeting their health and diet goals,” O’Grady shared.
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